WOMEN’S SUFFRAGE

Sun (Auckland), Volume 1, Issue 38, 7 May 1927, Page 5

WOMEN’S SUFFRAGE

A good resume of women’s opinions concerning the proposed English alterations to the franchise comes from the London correspondent of the ‘ Australian and New Zealander as follows:—Since the suffrage was extended to women at the age of 30, the leaders of the women’s movement in Britain have been out of the political limelight. The world war absorbed the energy which had been devoted to the struggle for “votes for women. During the last few months, however, a new slogan has been raised, which excites enthusiasm and angry dissent in equal measure, and has thus caused a revival of controversy. Twenty-five women’s societies have just determined to press upon the Government the necessity for enfranchising women on the same terms as men. A man of 21 is entitled to a Parliamentary vote: why not a woman of the same age? The problem, “Votes for flappers, nowever, has troubled the suffrage societies to the point of wholesale resignations. On the eve of a meeting between Mr. Baldwin and delegates from the 25 women’s societies a large part of the executive of the National Union of Societies for Equal Citizenship, headed bv Lady Balfour of Burleigh, resigned ?h a body. The point at issue between the dissentients and the other members of the executive does not seem to be whether a girl of 21 is as much entitled to a vote as a lad of the same age; rather the question is whether equality between the sexes is an ideal for which the leaders of the women’s movement should work to the exclusion of a less definite formula. The majority of the executive of the National Union of Societies for Equal Citizenship have decided that the parrot cry, “Equality between the sexes,” may easily become a fetish. Their idea is that sensible women will prefer to work in that direction® but be willing to consider each legislative proposal affecting men and wos»en on its own merits. Lady Balfour of Burleigh, the secretary of the National Union, Mrs. Soddy, ‘wife of a well-known professor of physics, and the dissentient leaders, however, prefer resignation to compromise. Lady Balfour of Burleigh states that several decisions of the council have weakened the driving force of the National Union. “One of the chief points of the union’s programme is a demand that regulations of the conditions and hours of work shall be based on the nature of the occupation and not on the sex of the worker. The new policy whittles down this demand.” Rather than sacrifice the slogan of absolute equality Lady Balfour and her friends have chosen to resign. There is a probability that “votes for flappers” will be conceded by the Government, and a Bill enfranchising women at 21 may well become law before the next general election. The Conservatives argue that if they do not make the concession their Parliamentary rivals win.